Every time I roast a chicken, I am reminded that there’s a reason chickens are awesome.
I had seven people over for dinner last Friday, and chose two plump roasters at my butcher shop. Out the door, less than ten dollars.
Click into photo for recipe and source
I roasted them in a large All Clad pan with a rack that I share with my daughter and her cheffy boyfriend. Think about sharing large and expensive cooking pots with someone in your family — do you really need two of these items, or can you send one back and forth as needed? Another bundle of cash saved.
I used Julia Child’s roasted chicken recipe and the two chickens served the seven of us with about a half of the second chicken left over. I talked about Julia’s cooking here; my post includes a video on how to roast a chicken.
After the dinner party, we threw the carcasses into a baggie, put them in the refrigerator, and went on with our weekend. Easy-peasey.
Monday night I stripped off the breast and remaining big pieces of chicken and warmed them up in a store-bought Thai peanut sauce for Music Man. There wasn’t much left in the skinny sauce bottle, so I put some water in the bottle, shook it up, and poured the diluted peanut sauce into the pan. Then I let the sauce cook down again, and Music Man loved his Thai chicken made from leftovers. Price — very close to being free.
The remaining carcasses went into the crockpot with enough water to cover them and I cooked them overnight on low heat. In the morning, I strained the broth and sorted through all the remaining bits of chicken to get rid of the bones and skin.
The last bits of chicken made a tasty chicken salad sandwich for my lunch and the broth will be used tonight to make shrimp and grits (I’ll link up that recipe and the story behind it soon!). I saved a couple of dollars there as well from my original ten dollar investment.
Any leftover broth is cooled and the fat skimmed off. Then I freeze the broth in a baggie for another meal. That’s another dollar saved.
One dinner party + one dinner + one lunch + two broths = Awesome.
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Love cooking whole chickens! They are delicious the first time and the leftovers are great in soups, salads and ‘reinvented!” I never thought of cooking the bones down in a crockpot for broth, though. Thanks for the tip!
Mmm…craving roast chicken now! That’s definitely one of those things that takes a little time but is so worth it. Also, good idea about sharing cooking equipment with family. We’ve talked about that but haven’t tried it yet.
I love to make chicken salad from the left over chicken we get when we buy one of the rotisserie chickens from the store. I’ll have to try it next time I make a chicken, it’s been over a year!
I am with you 1000%, girlfriend!!! There is NOTHING like the relative value of a roasted chicken!! I can make one of those bad boys stretch halfway across the country and back!!! I think a lot of people forget that the carcass still has a lot of value and can be the start of more good meals like soups and stews or just flavoring other dishes (like your shrimp & grits). I will admit that it has been ages since I actually roasted a chicken myself. I pick one up at Costco and let ‘er rip from there. Still…inexpensive and worth the $4.99 for the eventual 12-15+ food servings it will provide!
There are no limits to things we can do with chicken and broth. I don’t know how it happened, but I ran out of broth in the freezer recently. I never buy it in the can or box, so i had to change my dinner plans. It’s so good to see others do this step for making broth, too! I hope y’all had a fun time with your guests and delicious roasted chicken! 🙂